


Nine Parts of a Whole

by Mochas N Mayhem (KoohiiCafe)



Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bad Romance Novel Plot, Eventual Smut, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamory, Pregnancy, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:02:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27302362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoohiiCafe/pseuds/Mochas%20N%20Mayhem
Summary: Most people have one, two,maybethree soulmarks. Devi hasnine. She's wondered about it all her life, yet never found any of her soulmates. It's only when she finds herself unexpectedly in the Devildom that she finds the other pieces of her soul, uniting them all and making them whole.That's where everything goes wrong. The prince of the Devildom, one of her soulmates, has been working for centuries to reform his realm and to make peace with the other realms; unfortunately not all demons agree with his goals. Now, in the form of a human soulmate, his enemies have found a target; if they can kill his soulmate, Diavolo will be crippled- along with all seven lords of the Devildom.The solution? If a human becomes pregnant by their demonic soulmate, they gain the skills and protection of their child-to-be. As Diavolo's enemies tirelessly seek his biggest weakness, it becomes a race against time for Devi's soulmates to protect them all in the best way they can; by giving her a child.
Relationships: Asmodeus/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Asmodeus/Solomon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Beelzebub/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Belphegor/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Diavolo/Lucifer (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Diavolo/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Leviathan/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Lucifer/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Everyone, Mammon/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Satan/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Simeon/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 117





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yup, It's another AU featuring my OC Devi. This time, the Bad Romance Novel Edition! I wanted to write both a soulmate AU, as well as a pregnancy story, so the ideas were merged together and here we are. Things in this AU start out similar to the first scene in-game, and then will wildly diverge from canon.

The first thing to hit her was the _light_ , an absolute riot of colors shining from every direction, bright enough that it _hurt_. She squinted, instinctively throwing an arm up to cover her eyes. Her _soulmark_ was glowing; her soul _marks_ were glowing. Light gleamed from her chest and from further down her body; a dark crimson and green, a shining pink and orange. She brought her arm up to guard her eyes, squinting through the light.

She couldn’t make out her surroundings, the brightness drowning out everything, but there _were_ distinct points in the brightness; they were a dark violet all, five of them before and above her. A cacophony of voices, deep and high alike, were growling, hissing just as she had, gasping. One of those lights moved forward and down, towards her. Devi braced herself and forced herself forwards as well; no matter how bright or painful the light, she refused to back down or away, not when her _soulmates_ were before her.

“ _Devi_ ,” a rich, _deep_ voice called out; she stopped, wary confusion coursing through her. How did they- _he_ , there was no doubt with that voice- know her name? Soulmarks only glowed like this when soulmates were united for the first time. He _shouldn’t_ know her name, not at first meeting.

“Who are you,” she asked, her tone demanding, _commanding_ an answer. As that violet, dark light moved further towards her, the brightness around them all began to dim. She heard someone laugh, the voice just as deep as the one that had called her name, _amused_.

“I am unsurprised that our soulmate would be the type to challenge us.” The light dimmed further, and she could make out a black figure only a few steps in front of her; as the light finally faded completely, a black gloved hand reached for her as he stepped close enough to touch.

Devi stepped back and out of reach, pale amber eyes taking in her surroundings. The room they were in was large, cavernous almost in its size, with walls of dark stone of some kind. Behind the man- her _soulmate_ \- there was a raised dais of two levels, several figures upon it in black and red; their eyes were wide all, and pinned on her.

Her gaze yanked back down to the man before her as he took another step forward; she took another step of her own, away from him, her eyes narrowing. He was handsome, that was for sure, strikingly so; there was a smirk on his lips, amusement shining in a crimson gaze, raven hair framing his eyes; he wore what looked almost like a military coat of sorts, long enough that it fell to his knees, a bright red cape draped back and over one shoulder, gold embellishments glinting in the now low light of the room. His hand lowered, seemingly accepting that she was _not_ taking it.

“Who are you,” she asked again, her voice resolute. “How do you know who I am?”

It had been some time since she had been in the public eye- years in fact, not since before she had broken away from her mother. It was _possible_ that he knew her from that time, from years ago, but she doubted it. He _could_ know her from The Empress’ Wrath, or The Unseelie Court, but her legal name wasn’t used in her appearances at either business, only her stage name.

She didn’t trust it, or him.

“I suppose I should start by introducing myself and my companions.” It wasn’t the man before her who spoke, but one of the men on the dais. She shifted- careful to keep the man before her in her line of sight- enough so that she could look at the one who had spoken. He was on the upper level of the dais, and even from here, she could tell that he was _tall_. His coat, unlike the others, was a bright scarlet, the cape draped over his shoulder black; his hair was red, his countenance amused and bright, and his _eyes_. She’d been told many times that her eyes were gold, but they would pale in comparison to the pure golden shine of his.

“Yes, you should,” she told him firmly. He laughed, a strangely _joyful_ sound, the corners of his eyes crinkling. The man in front of her scowled, crimson eyes narrowing at her.

“I like her,” one of the other men on the dais said, and she glanced at him briefly; blond with dual toned blue-green eyes that were pinned to her, smug mirth in his grin.

“Be silent,” the man before her growled, although his gaze never left her. His voice was as commanding as hers had been; the blond snorted, but didn’t respond.

“I am Diavolo,” the man atop the dais said, smiling warmly at her. “I am the ruler of all demons, and the future king of the Devildom.” He paused, and something flashed through his eyes, something dark and intrigued. “It appears that I am your soulmate as well.”

 _Demons_?

“One of them, at least,” she replied, and she shrugged, putting that question aside for the moment. Her soulmarks had always been an anomaly; while It wasn’t strange for a person to have multiple soulmarks, most of the time a single individual had only two, maybe three. Devi had _nine_. They liberally decorated her body, each one perfectly mirrored by another opposite it, save the one on her back- that one was one of the largest soulmarks she had ever seen, stretching all the way across her shoulder blades.

He- _Diavolo_ \- chuckled, and nodded his head. “Indeed. I suspect that, aside from myself, you have seven other soulmates?” She wasn’t sure if he _knew_ , or if he was simply fishing. Either way, he was wrong.

“Eight, actually,” Devi told him, and found herself amused by the way several of the men raised eyebrows at her. Two didn’t, a tall redhead and a shorter man with champagne colored hair. The latter grinned, leaning forward on the railing in front of him.

“ _Eight_ ,” he asked, intrigue shining in his eyes. “You have _nine_ soulmates total?” He paused, clearly curious. “I wonder who the ninth could be. Mmmm, what a delicious mystery.” He turned his grin to the blond beside him, continuing, “ Don’t you agr-”

“ _Asmodeus_.” There was both threat and warning in the low growl that escaped the man in front of her. The other man- Asmodeus- abruptly quieted, a pout forming on his lovely lips.

And his lips were certainly lovely, just as much as the rest of him. _All_ of them were almost inhumanly gorgeous, really; they looked like heavily photoshopped men from a magazine who had stepped right out of its pages and into reality.

She looked past the raven-haired man in front of her back to Diavolo, and arched an eyebrow.

“So your name is Diavolo. What about the rest of your companions? It feels a little one-sided for you to know my name when I don’t know all of yours.”

The man laughed again, his grin brightening. “Of course, my dear.” His _‘dear_?’ She wasn’t _anyone’s_ dear other than her lovers’. Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t interrupt. He gestured to the man standing just a little more than arm’s reach from her. “This is Lucifer, the Avatar of Pride and my right-hand man- and another one of your soulmates.”

“We have been waiting for you for a _very_ long time,” the man ( _Lucifer? **Really**?_) said evenly, something dark behind his gaze.

“You’re _Lucifer_? As in, the literal devil.” Her voice was unimpressed, full of doubt and skepticism. The blond on the dais snickered as Lucifer ( _ **really**?_) scowled, his eyes narrowing.

“I am a demon, yes,” he told her, his hand lifting to splay against his chest. “Your human stories are indeed based upon me. However, most of them are very far from the truth.”

“He’s right about that,” the blond smirked, mischief in his eyes. “Most of them don’t come _close_ to describing how sadistic he really is.”

“Lucifer,” Diavolo interrupted, cutting the argument off before it truly started. His tone was jovial still; despite being phrased as a question, however, his next words were clearly a command. “Perhaps you should introduce your brothers to our soulmate as well?”

Lucifer ( _nope, she still didn’t believe it_ ) sighed, his scowl shifting to more of a frown. “If I must.” Then, with another sigh, he stepped back and to the side, enough that he could gesture at the dais. “As you heard before, that one is Asmodeus; he is the Avatar of Lust.”

“ _Excuse you_ ,” Asmodeus said with a glaring pout. “‘ _That_ one?’ How dare you introduce your sweet younger brother as ‘ _that one_.’”

Devi suppressed the urge to laugh at the ire in the man’s ( _demon’s? Uh huh, yeah, **sure**_ ) voice; she half expected him to stamp a foot, and she didn’t miss the way his hands released the railing, one of them balling into a fist at his side.

Lucifer ignored his miniature tantrum, gesturing to the blond at Asmodeus' side instead, “That one is Satan; he is the Avatar of Wrath.”

“It’s a _pleasure_ to meet you, Devi,” Satan ( _... **Really**? Weren’t Lucifer and Satan supposed to be the same person?_) all but purred, still smirking as he had been before. “I welcome anyone willing to stand up against my _dear_ older brother, _especially_ as a soulmate.”

“The one over there,” Lucifer continued, as if his brother hadn’t even spoken, “is Beelzebub; he is the Avatar of Gluttony.” He gestured to the tall redhead standing at the farthest end of the dais. The man’s head was down, one hand on his stomach, his brows furrowed; he was very obviously paying no attention to anyone else in the room.

“You know,” Devi drawled in response, arching an eyebrow at them all. “If we’re going by stage names, maybe you should address me by mine as well. They call me ‘The Empress’ when I’m performing.”

There was a moment of silence. She wasn’t sure who laughed first, Diavolo or Satan. Lucifer’s scowl deepened as Asmodeus’ laughter joined the others.

“I _definitely_ like her,” Satan repeated with a grin. Diavolo nodded as he gathered himself as well, his smile impossibly widening.

“She certainly has spirit, does she not?” he chuckled, this time the sound short and light. “Not that I would expect anything less; anyone mated with you and your brothers _and_ myself needs a fierce spirit and a strong will, a fire to match our own.”

“‘She’ is standing right here,” she said dryly. Satan smirked again, covering up a chortle with one hand.

“Diavolo,” Lucifer spoke with another sigh, this time ignoring _her_ as he turned to better address the apparent prince. She narrowed her eyes at him. “You do realize what this means for the exchange program?”

 _That_ seemed to finally put a damper on the man’s enthusiasm. His smile dipped to a solemn frown, and he sighed as he crossed his arms over his oh-so-broad chest, nodding. “We’ll need to set it aside for a time. The discovery of our soulmate must take precedence; we will have to make sure that she is protected.”

“Again,” Devi said, and it was almost a growl this time. “‘ _She_ ’ is standing right here, and she does not take well to being ignored.”

“I’m sorry, my dear,” Davolo started, turning his gaze back to her. She shook her head, interrupting,

“We just met. Soulmate or not, I am not ‘your dear.’ That’s an endearment that you’ll have to earn.”

She could almost _hear_ Lucifer’s scowl, but she kept her eyes on Diavolo. He met her gaze for a moment, then nodded.

“Allow me to apologize; I meant no offense.” He paused, as if considering his words. “We have waited a _very_ long time for you, Devi, and I was overeager.” 

She watched him for a moment, searching his eyes. There seemed to be nothing but sincerity in his gaze. “Apology accepted,” she said after a moment. There was a question on her tongue; he and Lucifer both had mentioned waiting for her, but none of the men looked much older than her- if older at all. ”You said you’ve waited awhile. How old are you? Exactly how long have you waited?”

“Thousands of years,” Diavolo answered, and there was something soft and quiet to his words. “Lucifer is the oldest among us, of course, and he has waited the longest, but we have _all_ waited millennia for you to appear.”

They were serious about their claim to be demons it seemed. She considered him for a moment, before sweeping her gaze over all the men. Beelzebub aside, all their eyes were trained on her, something unreadable in all their faces. She inhaled deeply, and turned her attention back to the ‘prince.’

“You claim to be demons- and well known demons at that.” Her eyes flicked to Lucifer before returning to Diavolo. “Can you prove it?”

“Of course, m-” He stopped himself, and then continued, “Of course, Devi.”

One moment, Diavolo stood upon the upper dais in his long red coat, to all appearances human, other than his golden eyes. The next moment, with a glimmering of light and shadows around him, he _changed_. In his place stood a man who looked much the same- and yet completely different. His coat has disappeared, leaving him bare-chested beneath a black fur mantle decorated with gold, a matching collar on his neck; she could just see the top of what looked to be harem style pants at his waist. Gold tipped horns had appeared to frame his head, in a deep red that faded to black; there were leathery wings- wings she _recognized_ \- at his back, red and black like his horns, gold tipped. Dark lines swirled across his chest, and he smiled.

“If you need further proof,” he began, and he reached up to unlock the golden latch keeping his mantle in place; he carefully pulled it from his shoulders, setting it on the table before him, and then he turned, showing his back to her.

There, stretched across his shoulder blades, was a soulmark even larger than her own. A crescent moon with its points facing upward was placed perfectly between his shoulders; stretched out from the moon itself was a set of four wings etched into his skin, wings that _perfectly_ matched the ones that grew from his skin below the mark. It was identical to the mark on her own back, save that the moon had turned a deep violet, the wings a shining gold; she had a feeling her own mark was no longer the monotone white of an unmated soul, bright against her dark skin, but colored just as his had become.

She heard herself inhale sharply. Diavolo turned once more at the sound, golden eyes locking with hers.

“Do you believe now?” he asked.

Devi had seen performances that could quickly transform a person from one thing to another; she ran a strip club, after all, had performed herself as the ‘Empress’ who ruled over the fae themed club. None of them looked like the transformation Diavolo had just undergone. No costume wings could move the way his wings did behind him, as naturally and easily as breathing, with no harsh movements of underwire and pulleys and mechanics. She exhaled slowly, gathering her thoughts.

Her soulmates- some of them at least- were demons. Demons who had been waiting for her to come to them for thousands of years.

“Why am I here,” she asked finally. It couldn’t be due to the fact that they were soulmates; they had all seemed just as surprised as she had been, taken just as off guard by the brilliant, blinding shine of their marks being united for the first time. And Lucifer had mentioned an ‘exchange’ program.

“You were brought here for an exchange program.” It was Lucifer who answered, and she turned her attention to him once more. “Our Lord Diavolo has, for some time, wished to bring peace between the realms of the angels, the humans, and the demons, and we have long worked to make such a thing possible. This exchange program was meant to aid in that goal. We have sent two of our demons each to the Celestial Realm and the human realm; in return, two angels have been brought to the human realm and here to the Devildom. Two humans were to be sent to the Celestial Realm, and two were to be brought here as well.”

Ah. That explained things at least in part. Lucifer continued.

“As you can imagine, you were to be one of the exchange students from the human realm. The other-”

 _Students_?

Devi arched her eyebrows both in disbelief, and, echoing her own thought, interrupted him. “ _Students_?”

Lucifer frowned, his brows furrowing. “Yes, students.”

“You realize that I’m _well_ beyond school age, right? I haven’t gone to school in over a decade.”

“We are aware,” he said slowly, his tone as careful as if he were explaining something to a child. “A human of age to attend school in the human realm would not have been suitable for the Devildom; they would be too young, too easily corrupted, to last among demons. You were in the lower age range of candidates we considered, but-”

“How, _exactly_ , did I end up on your ‘candidate’ list?” She crossed her arms over her chest, interrupting him once more. His frown deepened further. “I _certainly_ didn’t sign up to go to a school in hell.”

“The Devildom,” he corrected. She rolled her eyes as he continued, “we sent out applications all over the human world through their postal systems. Your application was one of those we received back.”

Devi froze.

Vette. _Vette_.

She, very vaguely, remembered her friend and lover laughing at some seemingly ridiculous letter they’d gotten in the mail, something to do with angels and demons. Neither of them believed in either; it had clearly been a joke. She _remembered_ Vette teasing her about filling it out; she’d told the other woman to fill it out in her own name, if she really wanted, and Vette had smirked and told her she was filling it out in Devi’s name instead.

She was going to _kill_ Vette when she got home.

She looked up at Lucifer, and found him watching her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Dammit.

“I take it you remember now?” His words were amused, gloating. She huffed out a sigh. She would… deal with Vette later. There were more important things to worry about at the moment. Such as-

“You said,” she began, turning to look up at Diavolo, “that you would have to put this program on hold to protect me. What did you mean by that?”

“You’re quite perceptive,” he commented, and nodded, his expression grim. “As Lucifer explained, the exchange program was meant to be a way to further and foster peace between the Celestial Realm, the human realm, and the Devildom, a goal that we have been working towards for centuries. However, not all demons agree with this goal; there is a faction of demons who wish for nothing more than to end my rule before it begins, and to destroy any hope of peace with the other realms.”

All too easily, she understood then.

“They would try to use me against you.” Diavolo nodded in return.

“Indeed they would. Were they able to harm you or kill you…”

The death of a soulmate could cripple a person. It wasn’t unheard of for someone who lost their soulmate to become ill and lose the will to live. Some were known to slip into comas, or simply lie down to sleep and then die rather than ever wake again. It wasn’t entirely common, and those who had multiple soulmates had an element of protection against the loss of one, but…

“The death of an angel or demon’s soulmate is much worse than the death of a human’s soulmate,” Lucifer spoke this time, his eyes dark with some emotion she couldn’t read. “It is extremely rare for one of us to lose the last of our soulmates without being thoroughly crippled. Truly, even the loss of _one_ soulmate can be devastating.”

“I take it,” she said slowly, her thoughts running over this new information, “that returning me to the human world wouldn’t be enough to prevent this faction from finding and coming after me.”

“Not now that we have been united, no,” Lucifer answered, and shook his head. “Diavolo’s mark, as you have seen, is very prevalent, and is well known to all demons. The fact that it has been made whole cannot be hidden. Even were we to return you and attempt to keep your existence hidden, the enemy would do anything in their power to root you out.”

Something ached in her chest. She forced it down, focusing on the immediate problem. Thoughts of her lovers, of the home and life they had so painstakingly built together, would have to wait.

“We will need to gather the other exchange students,” Diavolo spoke. “If nothing else, they will need to be made aware that the program is to be put on hold.”

Lucifer nodded, and turned his attention to his brothers. “Asmo, go to Purgatory Hall. Bring Simeon, Luke, and Solomon to-” he glanced up at the prince, who nodded, and then continued, “-the Demon Lord’s castle.”

“Understood,” the younger man nodded, and the playful, pouting demeanor he had worn before was gone, replaced by something more serious, almost grim.

“Satan,” Lucifer continued, “find Mammon and Levi and bring them there as well.”

“I will,” the blond answered, and the look on his face was much like that of his brother beside him.

“You are both dismissed,” their older brother ordered. They both gave her a solemn, if quick, look, and then turned to leave the room.

“Beel,” their older brother called next, and the redhead left on the dais was already waiting, his attention having turned to them while Devi wasn’t watching. “Escort Devi to the castle. Diavolo and I will follow shortly.” Then, lastly, he turned to Devi herself. He looked down at her for a long moment without speaking, his eyes searching her face for… for something. Then he spoke. “You will be protected. We have waited too long for you to allow any harm to come to you. Go with my brother; he will guard you as if he were guarding me.”

There was part of her that wanted to insist that she could protect herself. She had been protecting herself all of her life- but she had been protecting herself from humans. As vile as some humans could be, she had a feeling that they were nothing like demons. Swallowing her pride, she nodded.

“Then I’ll see you at this castle,” she told him confidently. The corner of his mouth turned up, as if amused, and he stepped back as his brother reached them.

“You will,” he answered and, with a nod to his brother, he headed up to the dais.

“Beel?” she asked; Lucifer had introduced him as Beelzebub, then addressed him differently. The tall demon nodded in return.

“I’ll get you to the castle safely,” he told her, his voice resolute. He held out a large hand to her, an offer. She considered it. Considered _him_. One of her _soulmates_. She reached out and took his hand.

“Then let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, many thanks to my wife, [Gyhl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gyhl), who is my beta and who gets to put up with me shoving stuff at them and praying that it's okay. XD Many thanks to m'darlin' [PhantomFox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomFox/pseuds/PhantomFox) for helping beta as well!
> 
> Devi also features in my Royalty AU, '[To Reign in Hell](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25595563),' and in my series '[Of Love and Demons Loved](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760449),' set in the normal Obey Me universe. If you're curious what she looks like, I have a [character visual reference post](https://panickedpansexualprincess.tumblr.com/post/615583468262457344/a-visualization-post-for-my-mc-devi-from-obey-me) over on tumblr!
> 
> If you're on tumblr, you can find me at [PanickedPansexualPrincess](http://PanickedPansexualPrincess.tumblr.com).


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devi meets the other exchange students, and more of Lucifer's brothers- and more of her soulmates as well. The suspension of the exchange program is discussed, as well as what to do while it's suspended.

The journey to the Demon Lord’s castle was shorter than she imagined it must have usually been; unwilling to expose her to other demons more than he had to, Beel had asked if she would be open to flying. Curious, she’d agreed, and then he’d _changed_. Much like Diavolo’s transformation, it happened quickly, with a shimmering of light and shadows, and when she could see him once again, he looked _different_. His military style uniform was replaced with black and studded leather; black horns curled gracefully around his head and proudly upwards, bringing to mind the image of a dark, wicked circlet; behind him were two translucent wings, distinctly insect-like, dark and just lightly twitching.

Without thinking, Devi’s hand shifted to her stomach, her fingers running over where one of her soulmarks lay beneath her clothes. She’d wondered for years about that mark, a fly encircled within an upwards pointing crescent moon; she’d questioned why on earth a soulmark would be a _fly_ of all things. Suddenly it made sense.

The demon smiled softly as her hand brushed her stomach. He started to reach forward, as if to touch it himself, and then he drew his hand back. “I’d like to see it sometime,” he said, his voice quiet. She chuckled, and smiled in return.

“It’s identical to your own, you know,” she teased, and his cheeks flushed.

“They’ll be different now,” Beel told her, and she nodded. Hers had been white before, like all her marks; it would have color now, the sign of soulmates united, of two parts of a single soul joined together as they were meant to be.

“You said you’d take me flying?” she asked instead of going further down that path. There would be time later for their soulmarks to be shared. There were more pressing matters at the moment.

“Come closer,” he bid her, and he extended his arm to her once again, another offer. Devi took his hand and let him pull her close against his warm, solid body. Releasing her grasp, he shifted to splay his hand against her back, his other arm reaching downwards; in the next moment, she found herself off the ground, held carefully bridal style in his grasp. A quiet huff of surprise escaped her, and the corners of his eyes, a gorgeous shade of purple fading to pink, crinkled as he smiled. “You’re safe. Just hold on.”

She nodded, reaching up to loop her arms around his neck. A moment later they were airborne, his wings buzzing loudly as they propelled them upwards into an inky black night sky. Wind whipped around them as he flew, and she found herself watching the land below as they passed over it; it looked almost like any city one might see in the human world, lights shining everywhere from the windows of modern looking buildings, streets paved between them, small figures moving along them. She wasn’t sure what she expected hell- the _Devildom_ \- to look like, but it certainly wasn’t this.

There was an honest to god _castle_ ahead, looking out of place and yet perfectly at home in the contemporary looking landscape. Spires rose tall around it, the highest in the very center of the walled in fortress; more lights twinkled from its many towers, their color warmer than the whiter shades in the city, flickering in a way that modern lighting wouldn’t. It was there that they were headed: the Demon Lord’s castle. It was… impressive, to say the least.

Beel brought them back down to the ground within the castle grounds’ walls, just in front of what looked like its main entrance. There was a man waiting there, watching as they touched down. Beel carefully placed her back on her feet, a hand staying at her back ready to steady her if she needed. Devi gave him a small smile as she soothed her hair back down from where the wind had blown it every which way during flight; she’d have to deal with it later, the thick locks were tangled all to hell, but that flight had been worth it.

The man stepped towards them, absolutely poised, and she took a moment to look him over. He wore a uniform similar to the others, but in a less militaristic cut, the lines of it more elegant; he paired it with white gloves and a white cumberbund beneath the short front of the jacket. It was an interesting take on the uniform, one that stood out from the different styles her soulmates ( _save Diavolo, his was far more unique_ ) had worn.

“Devi, I presume?” he asked once Beel’s wings had stilled, leaving silence around them. She nodded and he smiled. “I’m Barbatos, Lord Diavolo’s steward. If you will follow me inside?”

She glanced up at Beel; if the man was a threat, she assumed that the tall demon would have said or done _something_ , but it never hurt to check. He nodded and then, with a shimmering of light, he stood in his uniform again, horns and wings gone.

“You can trust him,” he said. She turned back to Barbatos.

“After you,” she told him. He nodded, as if approving of her actions, and then he led them inside. The halls through which they walked were tastefully rich and luxurious, far outdoing even her mother’s most expensive casino- and that was a _feat_. She supposed she shouldn’t have expected any less of a castle ( _more like a palace, really_ ) that belonged to the prince of an entire realm of demons.

Barbatos led them to a set of large doors that were just as opulent as the halls, and there he paused, turning to look at her. “You may wish to prepare yourself,” he said. “I suspect that, beyond these doors, you will find more of your soulmates awaiting your arrival.”

She studied his expression; he wore a calm smile, his expression utterly unreadable. Diavolo had guessed at the number of her other soulmates before, as had Asmodeus. They had both spoken as if they _knew_ who her soulmates were.

“Why do you say that?” she asked.

“It may perhaps be better to let them answer that,” he answered, his face still placid. Clearly he intended to give her no answers. She took one last look up at Beel beside her, who gave her a small smile, and she sighed and told him again,

“After you, then.”

Barbatos opened one of the doors and stepped through, holding it open for her. Devi took an even breath and followed him in.

 _Immediately_ the room began to glow brightly, cutting off any chance she had of seeing either the room itself, or those who waited within. Her wrists shone with a blue as deep as an ocean, and a bright shining white; a pure blue as light as the morning sky shone from her right collarbone. Somewhere before her, three figures shone the same dark violet as her other soulmates had. The sounds of confused gasps and cries rolled over her as she squinted in an attempt to safeguard her vision; covering her eyes with her arm was impossible this time, as brightly as her wrists glowed.

A large hand came into her field of view: Beel’s, shielding her vision as she couldn’t. She took the chance to try and blink away the brightness, but it remained behind her lids even with her eyes closed. She closed them fully, and didn’t open them again until she could tell that the light had begun to fade.

There were a total of seven figures gathered together in the large room they had come into, two of which she recognized, Satan and Asmodeus; a lingering violet was fading from three of the others, the rest of the men still shielding their gazes. Her eyes ran over those three, taking them in. Three more of her soulmates, leaving only one still unaccounted for.

She had been searching all her life for her soulmates, more than a little curious about the nine other pieces of her soul, wondering why hers was so scattered when no one else’s she’d heard of was. Now, in one night, she had found _eight_ of those nine, all together in one place.

 _One_ of those three was staring at her in shock; the others in the room were staring at _him_. He had skin almost the same soft brown as Diavolo’s had been, and dark bangs hung above wide eyes as blue as the mark on her collarbone. He moved forward a single step, hesitant, and her eyes flew to his exposed shoulder. There, slightly covered by the sheer black top he wore, was a mark she well knew; a silver feather curved into the shape of a crescent moon, framing a sky blue word in an unusual lettering. She’d looked it up long ago, curious as to its meaning; ‘shama,’ the Hebrew word for ‘to hear.’

“It seems, Simeon,” one of the other men said, and both her gaze and her soulmate’s turned to the fair-skinned, white haired man who’d spoken; his slate-blue eyes shone in amusement as he continued, “that you’ve finally found your soulmate.”

No one spoke for a moment. Then the silence was quickly broken, one of her other newly-discovered soulmates shouting out,

“What d'ya mean, _his_ soulmate?!” He had white hair as well, skin a shade lighter than Simeon’s, and his blue-gold eyes flew quickly between her, Simeon, and the man who’d spoken. “She’s _our_ soulmate, ain’t she? How can she be his too?”

“Quite easily,” Barbatos replied calmly, watching them all from where he’d stopped a few steps away from her. “As Devi herself can tell you, she has nine soulmates in total, not the eight that we had previously believed.”

“But- but!” It was a boy who sputtered out the words, blond and blue-eyed, clad entirely in white and blue. “Simeon’s an _angel_ , and they’re _demons_! How- how can _Simeon’s_ soulmate have _demons_ as soulmates?!”

“We were angels once too,” Beel said from beside her, and something in his voice drew her gaze upwards to him. His face was unreadable, but his gaze was steady as he looked to the boy. The boy sputtered again but didn’t speak, wide eyes shifting from Beel, to Devi, and then back to Simeon.

“How is _that_ fair,” another man groaned; it was the third of her new-found soulmates. His amber eyes were dark, an unhappy frown on his face as he looked at her and then Simeon. “We already have to share our soulmate between all of _us_ , and now we have to share with _Simeon_ too?”

Okay, _that_ was enough.

“No one is _sharing_ me,” Devi snapped, and all eyes jerked towards her. Her own were narrowed, her gaze and words sharp as she continued. “I’m my own person, no matter _who_ my soulmates are or how many of them I have. I’m not going to stand here and listen to you argue over me like I’m not even here. Keep it up and, demonic forces after me or not, I’ll take my chances and go home without _any_ of you.”

Silence fell. There was a muffled noise that sounded suspiciously like Satan holding back a laugh. She arched an eyebrow at him, but her voice had less ire and the slightest hint of amusement when she told him,

“That goes for you too.”

“I wouldn’t imagine otherwise,” he answered with a smirk, his eyes gleaming.

She was going to like him, wasn’t she.

Simeon cleared his throat gently. His eyes never left her as he spoke, his voice soft. “Please forgive us. We- _I_ \- was not expecting to meet my soulmate today.”

Her lips pursed as she looked at him. His expression was as sincere as Diavolo’s had been in that cavernous hall when he had apologized. More so, she thought. His eyes were expressive, gentle- almost hopeful, and yet unsure. “You’re not the one who should be apologizing,” she told him after a moment. _He_ hadn’t been one of the men arguing over her. But more importantly,

“Why do all of you seem to have preconceived notions of who my soulmates are? I’ve never met any of you before today.”

“We know each other’s soulmarks quite well.” The voice came from behind her; Lucifer stepped into view a moment later, Diavolo with him. “My brothers and I, as well as Diavolo, all have marks that prominently feature a waning crescent moon. With as long as we have waited for you to appear, never finding another whose marks matched our own, we knew that we likely shared a soulmate.”

His eyes shifted to Simeon, and his voice was almost blank when he spoke again. “While I knew your soulmark, I had never thought to connect it to our own.”

“It has been a long time,” the angel ( _the boy **had** called him an angel, hadn’t he?_) answered, shaking his head. “I did not think to either.”

Devi sighed. This was all- _complicated_. Not that she’d thought that having _nine_ soulmates wouldn’t be but. She’d never imagined that her soulmates would be angels and demons, beings that she hadn’t even believed existed before today.

“Alright. Before we go any further, why don’t you introduce me to the rest of this little party,” she suggested, shaking the thought away for the moment.

“As you wish,” the eldest demon said, and motioned to two of the others. “Mammon, Levi, come.”

One of the men- the one who’d complained about having to share her- stepped forward with a sullen look on his face; the other of her unnamed soulmates followed, glaring at Lucifer.

“I ain’t a dog, why ya gotta call me like one?”

“ _Mammon_ ,” Lucifer growled, crimson eyes narrowed. The man made a sort of yelping noise, and snapped his mouth shut, eyes darting away from the raven-haired demon. Lucifer sighed, clearly frustrated, and gestured at the white haired man in question. “This is Mammon, the Avatar of Greed. He was meant to be your guardian during the course of the program-”

“ _What_?”

“-but given the current situation, that is not a position that can be held by only one of us.”

“Indeed it’s not,” Diavolo said firmly, his lips pursed, arms crossed over his chest, and he made a low hmming sound. ”Until we can fully deal with the situation, someone will need to be with Devi at all times.”

Simeon exchanged glances with the as-yet-unnamed white-haired man beside him, but neither spoke.

“This,” Lucifer continued, and gestured to the purple haired man beside Mammon, “is Leviathan; he is the Avatar of Envy.”

“You keep introducing everyone as an avatar,” she said, her head tilting curiously. “What exactly does that mean?”

“Lucifer and his brothers are the Seven Lords of the Devildom,” Diavolo answered, and she turned her attention to him. “The Sins are split into seven- domains, if you will. Each of the brothers is the Lord of a single Sin’s domain; all other demons are divided into a singular Sin as well, and they serve beneath the Lord of that Sin.”

“The brothers are second in the hierarchy of the Devildom only to Lord Diavolo himself,” Barbatos added, and Diavolo nodded in confirmation. Devi gave herself a moment to mull the thought over in her mind. Not only were her soulmates _demons_ , they were also literally the rulers of hell. That was… a lot to take in.

“And the rest of our company?” She directed the question at the remaining three dressed so obviously different from the brothers. Simeon and the white haired man exchanged looks again. It was Simeon who answered.

“As you’ve heard, I’m Simeon. I am one of two representatives sent here from the Celestial Realm to participate in the exchange program.” He gestured to the young boy beside him. “This is Luke, the other representative from the Celestial Realm.” Luke opened his mouth to say- something- but Simeon looked down and shook his head minutely. The boy huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, but closed his mouth.

“I’m Solomon,” the last man said, giving her an odd smile. “I‘m the other representative from the human world.”

“I’d say it’s a pleasure to meet you all,” Devi told them, something of a wry smile on her lips, “but it seems like my arrival has thrown a very large wrench in things.”

“It is a pleasure regardless,” Lucifer replied, his voice solemn. She looked up at him and he was watching her with an unreadable look in his eyes. He turned his attention to the others gathered a moment later, and spoke again. “As you have likely surmised at this point, the exchange program has been put on a temporary hold.”

“ _What_?!” The exclamation came from Luke, confusion painted not only in his expression, but in Mammon and Leviathan’s as well. “Why?” Luke asked. “We’ve barely gotten started!” He paused, then his cheeks flushed lightly; he hurried to add, “Not that I care, angels and humans shouldn’t be mixing with demons anyway.”

It was Simeon who answered rather than the demon, understanding in his voice. “As soulmate to not only Lord Diavolo, but Lucifer and his brothers as well, Devi will need to be protected,” he said, looking down to Luke. His eyes shifted up to Lucifer as Luke’s face scrunched up, and Lucifer nodded.

“Correct,” he confirmed. She watched as the confusion washed away from his brothers’ expressions, something serious replacing it.

“If anything should happen to their soulmate,” Solomon explained this time, “it would cripple the entirety of the Devildom’s ruling counsel, as well as Simeon.”

The boy’s eyes went wide, a gasped “oh” escaping him. He looked quickly to Simeon, then to Devi. His surprised expression melted away, replaced by righteous resolve. “Then _we_ protect her. A human shouldn’t be left to the care of a bunch of _demons_.”

“Those demons are my soulmates,” she said, her voice flat. While it was sweet that the ( _young? He certainly looked younger than all the others_ ) angel wanted to protect her, she had had more than enough with everyone talking around her. She wasn’t going to give Luke a pass merely based on his apparent age. He flustered, and she sighed. “Look, inter-species politics aside, if all of you are truly working towards peace between your realms, you’re going to have to work together; part of that means not insulting or insinuating the other species is inferior.”

( _Did she really just use the phrase ‘inter-species politics?’ Now **there** was a sentence she never thought she’d say._)

There was another moment of silence; it was broken by an amused chuckle from Solomon.

“I’m not sure anyone has ever referred to angels and demons as separate ‘species,’” he said, his smile bemused. She rolled her eyes.

“Is there another, better word that I don’t know about,” she challenged, and he laughed again, shaking his head.

“No please, carry on. This will be entertaining to watch unfold.”

“Devi is right,” Simeon interrupted, giving Solomon and Luke a- well, she wasn’t sure _what_ to call the look he gave them. ‘Unamused’ didn’t quite fit: maybe ‘frustrated?’ Something between the two? He turned his gaze to Diavolo. “How do you intend to handle this situation, and how can we help?”

“We must make safeguarding Devi our first priority,” the prince answered. “We may be able to keep her appearance hidden for a short time, but that won’t last long. Our second priority must be to find more information about those that oppose my rule; the faster they can be located and dealt with, the sooner we will be able to begin working towards our goal of peace once more.”

Devi wondered how a demon prince ‘dealt’ with his enemies. She put the thought aside just as quickly as it had appeared; she had lost any qualms she might have had about ‘dealing’ with enemies long ago.

“If I might make a suggestion,” Solomon said, turning all attention from Diavolo to himself. He looked to her. “Devi, would it be correct to say that the supernatural world is entirely new to you?”

“Completely,” she confirmed with a nod. “Frankly, a few hours ago I didn’t believe that supernatural,” she paused, waving a hand vaguely, “ _anything_ existed, much less angels and demons.”

“That will need to be corrected,” he told her. “Attending RAD is now out of the question; you’ll need private tutoring from someone who is implicitly trusted by all involved.” Solomon turned back to Diavolo. “I would be more than happy to assist with that.”

“Rad?” she questioned, arching an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me demon slang is _that_ far behind human slang.”

Solomon chuckled, and there was muffled laughter from a few of the others as well. Diavolo’s head cocked, his expression curious.

“What is ‘rad’ slang for,” he asked, interest clear in his voice, and she had to push down the urge to grin; the look on his face was rather cute.

“‘Radical,’” she answered, unable to fully suppress her smile. “It’s surfer slang from- the sixties, I believe? It means something is ‘excellent,’ or ‘cool.’”

His expression made it obvious that he had more questions about her explanation. Lucifer spoke up quickly, turning the conversation back to the topic at hand.

“‘RAD’ stands for the Royal Academy of Diavolo, the school you would have been attending as part of the exchange program.” He shot an indecipherable look at Solomon before he continued. “Solomon _is_ correct in that you will need tutoring; however, I don’t believe that he would be able to cover all that you need to learn.”

“Perhaps not everything,” Barbatos agreed placidly, “but he would make an excellent tutor for anything involved with magic.”

“If you’re worried about leaving them alone,” Asmodeus added, speaking up for the first time. There was something amused in his voice. “ _I_ can stay with them and guard her during their lessons.”

“Oh you’ll ‘guard’ her alright,” Mammon growled under his breath, and then spoke louder, scowling at his brother, “Leavin’ her alone with you _and_ Solomon ain’t any better, Asmo- it’s _worse_ in fact, and I ain’t lettin’ ya do it.”

“Good thing it’s not up to you,” Asmodeus ( _Asmo? Both Lucifer and Mammon had called him that_ ) replied with a haughty smirk. “It makes perfect sense for me to stay with them; I’m _both_ of their soulmate, after all.”

“He is correct,” Lucifer said, something long suffering in his voice. She half expected him to reach up and pinch the bridge of his nose. “Asmo would be the ideal choice to look after Devi while she is with Solomon. Unless you have any issues with that, Diavolo?” He glanced over at the prince, and he almost looked like he _wanted_ Diavolo to disagree. If he did, the prince disappointed him, shaking his head.

“I see no problem with that. Solomon is a powerful sorcerer, and I can think of no one better suited to the task of teaching our soulmate magic.” He made a thoughtful noise, considering. “We can arrange for tutors for other subjects later. There are some subjects we ourselves would be suited to teach; for others, there are a handful of RAD’s instructors that I would trust enough to choose from.” There was a pause; as if remembering something, Diavolo turned to Devi, asking, “if you have no objections?”

She shook her head in response, although she was pleased that he’d asked; _someone_ , at least, had remembered to ask her opinion. “I imagine that I have a lot to learn about your worlds- your realms.” She paused herself, considering her next words. They weren’t words she gave away easily; they were words that she _rarely_ said. This man was her soulmate, however. Only one of them, but _one_ of them. “I will trust you to arrange whatever is needed.”

There was a look in his golden eyes that said that, somehow, he understood exactly how much it meant for her to say such words. He nodded lightly, as if to reassure her that her trust was not misplaced, and turned his attention back to the others.

“We should discuss where Devi will be staying for the moment,” he said, and there were a handful of looks exchanged around the room.

“We should perhaps discuss where _all_ of us will be staying,” Lucifer answered, frowning. “It would be best to have her stay where she will be safest; at the same time, it would be safest for us to remain close to her.”

“What are the options?” she asked, looking between Lucifer and Diavolo curiously. She assumed one answer was the castle they were standing in itself, but having only seen the inside of the building she’d arrived in, and now the castle, that was where her information ended.

“My brothers and I live separately in the House of Lamentation,” Lucifer told her, and shook his head. “It is not, however, as secure a location as here in the castle.”

“No, it’s not,” the prince agreed, his head tilting consideringly.

“Are there any other options,” she asked next, “Or is it just the two locations?”

“There’s Purgatory Hall, where Solomon, Luke, and I stay,” Simeon spoke up, and continued even as Lucifer shook his head, “but it is far too dangerous and easily accessible for you to join us there.”

“So it sounds,” Devi began, watching Lucifer for his reaction, “if you’re asking about where _all_ of us are staying, you’re considering leaving the…” Hell, what had he called it?

“The House of Lamentation,” he finished for her, and nodded. “I think that is a wise choice, yes. You would be safest here in the castle, and it would be far easier for us to keep you safe were we here as well.”

There was another round of looks, this time between all of his brothers. Which, reminded her,

“You mentioned earlier,” she said, looking up at Lucifer and Diavolo both, “that there were seven Lords of H-” she caught herself, self-corrected, “of the Devildom,” and continued, “Only five of your brothers are here.”

His sixth brother, she surmised from everything they’d said, would be the last of her soulmates. So far, however, their missing brother hadn’t even been mentioned.

Lucifer and all five of his brothers stilled at her words.

She watched as his brothers looked to him. Most of them wore carefully blank faces, their expressions guarded; there was something like pain in Beel’s eyes, something aching. And Lucifer…

“Our youngest brother Belphegor is participating in the exchange program,” he said, the words strangely stiff. “He has been sent to the human world as one of the two representatives from the Devildom.”

‘Belphegor.’ Her last soulmate was Belphegor. His was the only remaining soulmark on her body that hadn’t yet been made whole; her hand shifted thoughtlessly to where it lay on her stomach, opposite the mark she shared with Beel. She felt Beel shift beside her, his eyes following the movement of her hand.

“Will he be recalled,” she asked carefully, far too aware of the tension around her and between all of the brothers. “Since the program is to be placed on hold for the time being?”

“We will need to do that, yes,” Diavolo answered; if she hadn’t been watching Lucifer closely, she might have missed the way he tensed at the prince’s words. That was… interesting. “The program will need to be halted in all three realms.”

“I can contact Michael to let him know,” Simeon offered, and the look on his face was still. “I will need to speak with him regardless.”

“To let him know that you’ve found your soulmate,” Lucifer said, and his voice was even stiffer than before, almost sharp. Simeon’s eyes softened as he looked to the other man in return, sorrow written in his gaze.

“Yes.” He paused, and inhaled deeply. “The rules have… changed, in recent times.”

“Of course they have.” No, not _almost_ sharp. Lucifer’s words were jagged and cutting, his tone scornful and mocking. “Now that the numbers of the host are falling, they can’t possibly keep to Father’s old laws, can they?”

“Lucifer.” It was Diavolo who spoke, not a single other person in the room moving. His voice was calm and quiet, laden with solemnity.

“No,” Simeon said, his voice heavy as he shook his head. “I’ll go.” He glanced over at Solomon, requesting, “Please let me know what everyone decides,” then down to Luke, “Let’s go report to Michael.”

Solomon nodded silently. Luke hesitated, glancing up at Lucifer; quickly he looked away, and as Simeon headed out, he followed after the other angel without a word.

Devi, very clearly, had missed _something_. It was also, very clearly, not the time to ask. Even as the angels disappeared down the hall, large doors closing behind them, the tension in the air was thick enough she could have cut it with a knife. _Still_ no one was moving.

Diavolo sighed. He looked to Lucifer and said, “I’m sure there is much that will need to be done to prepare you and your brothers for moving to the castle. Do you have an idea of how long you will need?”

“I will begin the necessary arrangements now, and provide you with an estimate once I have one,” Lucifer answered, the words stilted. “If you will excuse me?”

“Of course.” The words were softer than she’d heard Diavolo speak yet.

“Beel,” Lucifer said, “You will remain with Devi. The rest of you will follow me.”

Without waiting for a reply, the eldest of the demons turned and left. His brothers, other than Beel, exchanged hasty looks and then followed after him without a word. As the doors closed behind them, Diavolo turned to her and sighed again.

“I take it I shouldn’t ask,” Devi offered an easy out, forestalling any explanation he might offer. Whatever had just happened… It could be handled later. She could see how tense the prince was still, could _feel_ how stiff Beel was at her side.

“It may be better to have such a conversation at a later time,” he agreed. “Truly, it is not my story to tell.”

“I can understand that.” Respect it, even. Letting the subject lapse, she asked instead, “So I’ll be staying here, then.”

“Indeed.” She thought she could see relief in his golden eyes, and then it was gone, the prince turning to where Barbatos stood. “How soon can quarters for Devi be made ready?”

“I began the arrangements before you arrived,” he answered serenely. After the tension of before, the chuckle that Diavolo released was light, but genuine. “They should be available now.”

“Always a step ahead of things,” Diavolo replied with a shake of his head. To Devi, he said, “If you like, Barbatos can show you to where you’ll be staying and you can get settled in.”

Now that. _That_ presented another question. Giving him an amused look, she commented,

“I’m not sure there’s much ‘settling in’ to be done when I have nothing but the clothes on my back.”

“That is something that can be easily taken care of as well,” Barbatos told her. Devi arched an eyebrow at him, and he gave her a smile. “I can send someone to retrieve anything you’d like from the human world; likewise, if there is anything you would like here in the Devildom, that can be provided as well.”

“Let’s start,” Devi answered, her tone amused, “with a way to contact home. My- _family_ \- has surely realized I’m missing by now; if they don’t hear from me soon, they’re going to start prepping for war.”

“For war, you say?” There was a spark of something in the steward’s eye, something that made her think he knew _exactly_ what she meant. “Then let us get you to your quarters so that you can contact your- ‘ _family_.’”

Why did she get the feeling that he knew exactly what she’d meant by _that_ too?

Barbatos glanced up to Diavolo, who nodded. “I’ll be in my study,” the prince told him. Then he turned to Devi, his gaze solemn. “Today has been… Unexpected, to say the least.”

“That’s one word for it,” she answered, giving him a wry smile. The one he gave her in return was warmer.

“Regardless,” he continued, “I would not change a moment of it. Finally finding you, Devi, after all this time, is a moment to be cherished.” He reached out to her; she laid her own much smaller hand in his. His fingers closed around hers, and he drew her hand up to brush a light kiss across her knuckles. “I look forward to our future together.”

Releasing her hand and exchanging a last look with not only Barbatos, but with Beel as well, Diavolo turned and headed out.

Then it was only Devi, Barbatos, Beel, and Solomon left.

“There are a few things that I need to attend to myself,” the latter said. He glanced over to Barbatos, telling him, “If you need me for anything else tonight, just let me know.”

“Of course,” he replied. Solomon nodded his goodbyes to her and Beel, and then it was just the three of them. Barbatos asked, “If you’ll follow me, your quarters are this way.”

She glanced up at Beel, and found that he was watching her quietly. The tenseness had faded from him, to a point, but there was still something careful and guarded behind his eyes. This time, it was she who offered a hand to him. Something in his gaze relaxed, the slightest bit, and he took her hand in his own. Offering him a slight smile, she squeezed it lightly, and led him after Barbatos.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devi contacts her loved ones in the human world to reassure them that she's alright. She and Beel get to know a little more about each other.

The quarters to which Barbatos showed them were just as lavish as the rest of the castle that she’d seen so far; there was a comfortable sitting room with a private balcony looking out over the surrounding landscape, a _sinfully_ luxurious bedroom with a spacious closet, and an opulent marble-tiled bathroom that a girl could _kill_ for. He’d given her a smartphone looking device that he called a D.D.D., with which she could both phone home, as well as call anyone in the Devildom whose information she had; when she browsed briefly through the contacts, she’d found entries already for everyone she’d met that night. Then, letting her know that she could call him for anything she needed, Barbatos had excused himself and left her in Beel’s care.

Her fingers itched to dial home immediately; Quinn and Vette were likely already searching for her, and she needed to let them know that she was safe and alive sooner rather than later, _before_ things got out of hand. At the same time, some deep desire pulled at her very soul, drawing her towards the demon with whom she shared it; she might not have waited near as long to find him as he had to find her, but that didn’t mean that he called to her heart any less.

She _needed_ to call home. She needed to call _before_ her long-time lovers could let slip the dogs of war to find her. She breathed deeply, turned to him to offer him a wry look.

“A large part of me wants nothing more than to sit down with you,” she began, her voice warm, “and begin to get to know you. Unfortunately, there’s something I need to take care of first; I have family back in the human world who are probably tearing their hair out trying to find me right now.”

“Family comes first,” Beel said, a surety in his voice that made her smile. It was a sentiment with which she agreed, although her definition of family might be a little different than his own. He shook his head, continuing, “I’m not going anywhere; talk to your family.”

“Thank you.” She put all the warmth into her voice that she could. Giving her something of a smile, he moved over to one of the couches a little ways away.

She considered stepping out onto the balcony to make the call, or possibly withdrawing to the bedroom. She dismissed the thought without hesitation. She had nothing to hide from her soulmate. Swiping the screen of the device unlocked, Devi opened the dialer and put in a number she knew by heart.

“ _Devi?_ ” The answer was immediate, the line not even fully ringing once before the call was accepted. His familiar voice was clipped, and she could imagine the way his brows would be furrowed, the way his eyes would be narrowing now; she was one of only three who knew this number, and their third was likely with him now.

“It’s me,” she confirmed. The swears he let out were impressive, especially coming from her usually proper-to-a-fault lover, and had he been any less desperate or worried, she might have teased him for it.

“ _Where are you?_ ” he asked, and she could _see_ the way his lips would be pressed together, the demand for an answer that would be in his eyes. “ _Your phone was left at home and we haven’t been able to find a single trace as to where you went; I **do** hope there’s a **reason** for that._”

His tone was even, but the words were a threat, and they both knew it. If she didn’t have a damn good reason for making them worry, he was going to eat her alive later.

“There is,” she told him calmly, “and it’s a very long story. Is Vette with you now?”

“ _One moment,_ ” he said, and then he was barking out orders. She could hear the flurry of responses that answered; a loud clattering of footsteps was audible even over the phone, and then-

“ _Where the **hell** have you been?_”

“I missed you too,” she said with a smirk, this time letting a _little_ teasing into her words. The other woman growled in return. 

“ _We’ve been looking for you everywhere! **Tell me** you have a good explanation for this little disappearing act of yours._”

“Would you believe me if I told you that I found my soulmates? Almost _all_ of them?” There were two sharp inhalations over the line. “Call off the search parties,” she told them. “I’m alive and well, and I’m perfectly safe at the moment.”

“‘ _At the moment?_ ’” Quinn echoed, his frown audible.

“It’s a long story,” she repeated. “It has nothing to do with my mother or sister, don’t worry about them; it has nothing to do with any of our businesses or theirs either. There _is_ a whole new player on the board though, and I’d rather talk about this when you’re somewhere private.”

There was a moment of silence. Too _much_ silence. They’d muted the line. Devi rolled her eyes and waited for them to unmute it once more.

“ _Understood_ ,” Quinn finally answered.

“Where are you right now?” she asked, although she was fairly certain she knew the answer.

“ _We’re at the main office,_ ” Vette told her. Good, they weren’t far.

“Call me at this number when you get home, and I’ll explain everything.”

“ _As you wish_ ,” Quinn said, and the line dropped without another word. She looked down at the device, laughing at his impertinence, and tucked it into a pocket once she’d locked the screen. Only then did she turn to where Beel had settled, heading over to join him.

“Was that your family?” he asked, and she smiled as he shifted to make room for her to sit beside him.

“Of a sorts,” Devi told him. “Not blood-family, but they’re the only family that matters to me.”

His brow furrowed at her answer, and he took a moment before asking, “You mentioned your mother and sister?”

“Yes. Those two _are_ blood-family, unfortunately.” Her lips twisted into something of a grimace. “Would that I could forget they even exist, but that’s hard to do when I’m in the same line of business as they are.”

“You said something about that earlier, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question, she noted with a touch of amusement; so he _had_ been paying attention. “You mentioned performing?”

She nodded, smiling a little at the open curiosity in his eyes. “I’m the co-owner of two small businesses in Las Vegas, along with the two you heard me talking to on the phone; the first is a casino called The Empress’ Wrath, and the second is a strip club called The Unseelie Court. I’m not a regular performer, but I _do_ keep a stage presence as the public face for both; the ‘Empress’ who rules them and appears for events and special performances.”

“Mammon and Asmo would like that,” Beel said, the corners of his lips quirked up. She paused to run over their faces in her mind, remembering the bit she’d seen of them in the rather hectic few hours since this had all begun.

“They’re the- avatars of greed and lust, correct?” Which would explain why they’d like a casino and a strip club. She grinned a little when he nodded. “And you- you're the avatar of gluttony?” He nodded again, and it was her turn to give him a curious look. “Diavolo said that being an avatar meant ruling over the demons assigned to your sin, but- what does that mean for _you_?”

The demon made a low, thoughtful hum, seeming to mull the question over. He answered slowly, but with certainty. “In terms of how we rule, that’s changed a lot over time, especially since the Demon King went to sleep and Diavolo became Prince Regent.”

“The Demon King?” she questioned, curious. Diavolo _had_ said that he was king-to-be and _future_ ruler, but with everything else that had already happened, no one had said anything more beyond that.

“Diavolo’s father,” Beel confirmed, his expression solemn. “He’s been sleeping in the lowest levels of the Devildom for centuries, and Diavolo’s ruled in his absence since. That’s when he began to enact more changes so he could start working towards peace.”

“What kinds of changes?” Without knowing the differences between the Devildom and human myths and tales of hell, she couldn’t be sure how difficult it must have been to turn it towards peace- but she couldn’t imagine it would have been easy regardless.

“There have been a lot of changes made to reduce in-fighting and killing,” he said. “Under old laws, demons could wholesale slaughter other demons of the same or lesser class with hardly any penalty; the simplest disagreements could end in fights to the death, without punishment or need for reason.” He paused, and she nodded; it was easy to see how that could lead to things being difficult, to say the least. He continued, frowning. “It had been like that from the very beginning, long before my brothers and I Fell, but over the last several thousand years, we noticed that it was starting to take a toll on the Devildom; death rates from even minor fights were rising faster than the birth rate of new demons.”

She could _certainly_ understand that being an issue.

“So Diavolo decided to do something about it,” she asked, and he gave another nod, meeting her gaze steadily.

“Right.” There was a look of conviction in his eyes when he replied that she appreciated; it was clear he agreed with the decision and reason for change. “The-”

Her pocket chose that moment to ring; Quinn and Vette were home. Devi gave him a wry smile, which he returned. “It sounded like they were worried about you. Go ahead.”

Pulling the faux-smartphone out, she unlocked the screen and picked up before it could ring a second time. After a second’s thought, she tapped it over to speaker mode so that Beel could listen; if he’d been able to hear their worried tone before, from across the room with _out_ speaker mode on, he’d be able to hear from right beside her either way.

“You’ve reached Devi’s voicemail,” she answered with a smirk, “please leave a-”

“ _Don’t you give us that bullshit, not after you **vanished** on us like that!_” Vette’s words were sharp, although her voice bore more worry than anger. “ _You were scheduled to open at Wrath today, and then you just- never showed! The last time that happened you-_ ”

She grimaced, cutting the other woman off quickly. “I know, but I’m fine,” she reassured. The last time she’d missed opening the casino, her sister had made an unexpected appearance and she’d been… _delayed_. "I haven’t seen hide nor hair of Khaterah since then, and she has absolutely nothing to do with this, I _promise_.”

“ _Then who does?_ ” It was Quinn this time, his tone carefully seeking. “ _You mentioned a new player._ ”

“I did.” She hummed to herself; time to lay down the first bread crumb for later. “Vette, do you remember that joke letter we got in the mail a few months ago? The one that was an application to some kind of fantasy school?” She took a moment before pointedly adding, “The one you filled out with _my_ information?”

Vette snorted. “ _How could I forget? The ‘Royal Academy of Diablo,’ or something like that?_ ” There was a pause, and then, “ _What, don’t tell me that you got dragged down to hell for demon college and **that’s** why you didn’t show up to open._”

“Alright, then I won’t tell you.” Devi grinned, letting her smug tone speak for itself. When she didn’t add anything else after a moment, the other woman groaned,

“ _ **Not** funny, Devi. Seriously, we were worried about you, where **are** you?_”

“You told me not to tell you,” she teased. Vette growled, and she heard Quinn sigh before a jostling sound indicated that he’d taken the phone from her.

“ _You said you met your soulmates._ ” The careful blankness of his tone told her everything she needed to know about how he felt about that.

“I met eight of the nine, yes,” she confirmed. “One of them is with me now. Quinn, Vette, I’d like you to meet Beel, one of my soulmates.” Her gaze flicked up to him; he met her eyes for a moment, and she nodded.

“Hi,” he said simply.

“Beel,” she continued, and she watched his expression carefully, “I’d like you to meet Quinn and Vette; they’re my oldest friends, my only family, and my lovers.”

“ _Hi,_ ” Vette answered with a weak laugh, and Quinn’s more solemn, “ _Hello_ ,” followed.

Something shifted behind the demon’s eyes. He didn’t otherwise react immediately- something she was starting to notice, how he took his time with his words- but his gaze softened, an understanding there.

“I’m glad to know that Devi hasn’t been alone until now,” Beel said evenly. Her lips pulled into a slight smile, their eyes still met over the phone.

“ _Y- yeah,_ ” Vette laughed again, the sound not as weak, but somewhat forced, “ _Not alone, nope, she definitely hasn’t been alone._ ”

Devi could _hear_ Quinn rolling his eyes at their third. He spoke next, his voice even, although she could tell that he was reaching the limits of his patience. “ _You still haven’t answered our questions; where are you, and who is this new player?_ ”

“I can’t tell you everything yet,” she answered, and she kept her voice steady, confident. As much as she would have liked to flat out tell them, she knew they wouldn’t believe her. _She_ wouldn’t have believed without seeing first Diavolo transform the way he had, and then Beel as well. The truth would have to wait until she could give them hard, solid proof- or bring them and her soulmates together to _show_ them.

“One of my soulmates is in a… position of power not unlike mother’s, but on a much larger scale; he leads a very powerful ‘empire,’ if you will, and he has equally powerful enemies.”

“ _I see_.” She was sure he did; Quinn was brilliant, clever, and intelligent enough that she didn’t need to explain what she’d left unsaid. She could hear his frown in his voice, and his words were somewhat stiff when he asked, “ _Is your soulmate aware that we are perfectly capable of providing any protection you might need from hostile enemies?_ ”

She didn’t miss the careful look of concentration on Beel’s face as he listened, the redhead clearly paying close attention; she imagined he was trying to pick up any information he could, just like she had earlier when the others had kept talking over her.

“I’m not sure that we are,” she told him with a frown of her own, which still stung her pride to admit. Someone- she wasn’t sure if it was Quinn, Vette, or _yes_ \- inhaled sharply, ready to respond, and she continued before they could interrupt. “I’m well aware of how capable our defenses are, and you both know it; you’re going to have to trust me when I say that the people who are going to come after me are stronger than we can hold off on our own. We likely couldn’t hold them off even if we had the assistance of the LVMPD.” She paused, grimaced, and added, “I doubt we could hold them off even if, for some un _godly_ reason, we had mother’s resources at our disposal as well.”

Not that she would ever, in a _million years_ , lower herself to asking her mother for help. The very thought made her skin crawl.

“ _I’m not sure if I’m more disturbed or **disgusted** that you would even **think** about letting Raziela’s hired stooges near our people,_” Vette said after a long moment, audibly shuddering.

“The idea makes me feel just as ill as it makes you feel,” she snarked back, and Vette huffed a half laugh. Devi intentionally softened her voice, infusing it with as much warmth and confidence as she could. “ _Trust_ me. As soon as I can tell you more, I will. In the meantime, I need you two to hold down the fort without me until things are looking a little more stable on this end.”

“ _Of course we trust you._ ” Quinn’s voice was solemn and low. She heard him take a slow breath before speaking again. “ _How do you want us to handle appearances from the ‘Empress’ while you’re gone?_ ”

“I don’t believe there are any scheduled for this month, but if that changes, Acina can stand in as ‘Regent Queen.’ We can work out an official story for my absence later, find some way to turn it into an entertaining narrative.”

“ _And if the LVMPD need you for some reason?_ ” Vette asked. She frowned to herself.

“Hopefully that won’t be an issue, but if they call, let them know that I’m only available for phone consultations at the moment. If they need anything in person or face to face, Quinn you have my full authorization to act as you see fit.”

“ _Uh, one problem with that, smarty-pants. You left your phone **here** , remember,_” the other woman snorted. Devi rolled her eyes.

“I’m going to send someone by to pick up a few things,” she answered. She sighed then, and she asked, “If you would pack a bag or two for me, I would greatly appreciate it. I don’t know how long it’s going to be until I can come home, and it would be nice to have a little bit of home _with_ me until then.”

“ _Yeah_ ,” Vette said, her voice softer. The words that followed came out brighter, a cheerful mask guarding them. “ _But if it’s only packed with mis-matched clothing and the absolute worst outfits I can pull out of the Court’s dressing rooms, you only have yourself to blame, got it? You can consider it your just rewards for scaring the hell out of us like you did today._ ”

“Ve-” she began to protest, and then cut herself off, instead appealing to, “ _Quinn_ , please-”

“ _As much as it pains me to say,_ ” he interrupted her, his voice not pained in the least, “ _I’m afraid I’ll have to leave all the packing to Vette. It looks like I’m going to have my hands full setting things up for the temporary absence of the ‘Empress.’_ ”

“Traitor,” she huffed back, but smiled slightly. They’d be fine without her for now; they could easily handle anything that came up with either business, and anything _else_ that might come along to boot. “Text me at this number when things are ready; I’ll send someone by the main office and give them the codes. Do _not_ let in anyone without them, whether they say I sent them or not.”

Vette scoffed. “ _What, do you think we were born yesterday? We’ve been doing this just as long as you have, Devi_.”

“ _Longer, even_ ,” Quinn added dryly.

“Alright, alright. I know when I’ve been beaten; I give.” She laughed lightly, her smile a little warmer, even if they couldn’t see it. “I’m sorry to have worried you both. I didn’t have much of a choice in the way things went today, everything moved too fast. I promise I’ll tell you more as soon as I can.”

“ _I will hold you to that promise,_ ” Quinn said, and there was a threat in his voice again. She _knew_ the look that would be on his face if he were before her- the sharp scolding that would be silent in his gaze, the firm, no-nonsense press of his lips. “ _I trust that you will fully enlighten us as to your situation as soon as possible; know, however, that the time in which you have to do so is **not** unlimited._”

In other words: fess up soon, or they would track her down and drag her home, willingly or no.

“As always, you are ever gracious in your generosity,” she teased. “Now, since I’m sure the both of you have better things to do right now than chat with me,” _someone_ needed to be taking over her shift at the casino, “I’ll let you go. Remember to text me when my things are ready to be picked up.”

“ _As our ‘empress’ commands,_ ” Vette snorted, her sarcasm more than evident. There was a pause, an aborted sound, as if she’d started to speak and then stopped herself.

“I love you both,” Devi said, more than willing to say it even if they were unsure in the face of the day’s events. _Especially_ if they were unsure. The three of them may not have shared a soul, but that didn’t mean that their feelings for each other, that everything they’d been through together, was any less real.

The “ _love you too,_ ” that echoed back from both of them before they said their goodbyes pulled at her heart. She didn’t hide the warmth it lent to her smile as she hung up the D.D.D. and tucked it back into a pocket, looking back up at Beel. She kept that smile as she said,

“I imagine you have questions about some of what you heard.”

Beel nodded slowly. He didn’t speak immediately though, but instead watched her for a moment. What he said next took her off guard.

“None of us will blame you for having lovers.”

That was _not_ the statement she’d expected him to lead with. It _was_ at least somewhat reassuring though.

“Some of the others will be jealous,” he admitted, continuing, “Levi isn’t very good at sharing, and neither is Mammon.” He paused, frowning, “You haven’t met him yet, but Belphie can be possessive too.”

“Belphegor?” she guessed, and Beel nodded.

“Yeah,” he said, then continued. “We’re demons. It’s unusual even for us for a soul to be split ten ways, but we tend to have more soulmates than humans do. We’re longer lived, and some wait centuries or longer to find their soulmate. Demons don’t expect each other to never take other lovers.”

“Have you had lovers,” she asked, her voice purely curious, her head tilting as she watched him. He gave her a light smile, nodding.

“Belphie and I have shared a few lovers. Our other brothers have all had lovers too- other than Lucifer. He and Lord Diavolo have always been…” He trailed off, something significant in his tone.

“Lucifer and Diavolo?” she echoed, arching an eyebrow. He laughed a little, nodding.

“They’re soulmates as well,” he explained, and- okay, yeah, she… Thinking back, going over the way the two of them had interacted, somehow she wasn’t entirely surprised. As tempted as she was to pursue that line of thought, though… Beel had made sure to reassure _her_ before anything else, despite the questions he surely had for himself. He deserved the same kind of respect.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice sincere and warm. And then, she continued, “You probably have other questions though, don’t you?”

“You’re not just a business owner,” he answered, voice unphased; it wasn’t a question.

“Picked up on that, did you?” She laughed, the sound dry and amused, and shook her head. “No, I’m not. My casino and club are run as neutral grounds that both gang members and cops alike patronize, but only without bringing any _official_ business with them, and with absolutely _zero_ violence allowed.” She hummed lightly, smiling innocently as she added, “and if I also sometimes act as an informant and advisor to the Las Vegas police when it comes to gang related activity, well that’s between the LVMPD and I.”

He made a considering sound, low in his throat, his gaze even as he thought it over. After a moment, he asked simply, “Why?”

“Because my mother runs one of the largest gangs in Las Vegas.” Her tone was more solemn when she answered, and a sigh escaped her. This was one of her least favorite topics, one she only brought up either in the line of business, or if she absolutely had to. There wasn’t really a way around it here, though; sooner or later, she’d have to tell her soulmates. With how level and even-keeled Beel had been so far, she had a feeling he might be a good sounding board for the entire thing.

At least, if nothing else, the literal demon rulers of hell weren’t likely to judge her all that harshly for any of it.

“My twin sister Khaterah and I,” she continued without pause, “were both raised to follow in her footsteps, and one day take over from her whenever she’s ready to step down. But when I say we were _both_ raised to take over- I don’t mean to say that we would _both_ be taking over. Our mother raised us with the knowledge that only _one_ of us would be able to inherit her little ‘kingdom,’ and that the other would be left at her sister’s mercy with absolutely nothing to her name.”

Something flickered behind the demon’s lovely violet eyes again, something darker this time; his brows furrowed together, his lips flattening as he listened. She watched him as she continued, looking for any further hint of reaction.

“My sister fit perfectly into the mold mother made for her. She never questioned anything we were told growing up, never stopped to think for herself, or to consider the rights and wrongs of everything that happened around us. She didn’t think twice about all the things that our mother did, or that happened because of our mother- of all the hurt and harm that fell upon anything and anyone that we or mother touched. I _did_ , and I decided a long time ago that I hated it, so.” She shrugged a little then, her voice as steady as her expression. “I went my own way. In doing so, I chose a way that allowed me to give back to the city my mother had taken so much from.”

He didn’t look shocked. Not that she supposed something as simple as being a gang leader’s daughter would shock a demon thousands of years old; he had likely seen, or even _done_ , much worse in his many years of existence than anything her mother had ever done. She wasn’t sure how to read the expression on his face though, or the look behind his eyes. Maybe if she’d known him longer than a scant few hours, but not yet.

She wasn’t given the chance to _try_ and read it. Before either of them could speak again, the silence that had fallen over them was interrupted by two things;

 _1._ A surprisingly loud roll of thunder that sounded like an oncoming storm, and then

 _2._ A sharp knock on the door.

Devi looked towards the door, began to stand up- and then Beel’s hand came out before her, his head shaking minutely. He didn’t speak, but the look in his eyes was clear. Pushing down the urge to protest, she nodded instead, and watched as he rose to his feet and moved to the door. He moved silently, especially for a man his size, looking carefully through a peephole once he’d reached the door. The tenseness in his body melted away barely a millisecond later, and that echoing peel of thunder rolled over her again as he reached to open the door and step back quickly- thunder that was coming from _him_ she realized.

Barbatos stood on the other side of the door, a long, covered cart in front of him. Amusement shone in his eyes as his eyes rose first to Beel, and then shifted over to where she still sat.

“I thought the two of you might enjoy something to tide you over while you get settled,” he said and stepped forward confidently, pushing the cart ahead of him. Beel moved out of the way immediately, holding the door open for the other demon; once Barbatos had cleared the door, Beel closed it behind him without ever looking away from the cart itself.

“Something to eat sounds absolutely wonderful,” she agreed, watching as the steward guided the cart over to a small dining table near the windows that looked out to the balcony. Beel followed behind, eyes still trained on the cart; there was something like excitement almost vibrating in his voice as he said,

“Barbatos is the _best_ cook in all the Devildom.”

 _Right_ ; he _had_ been introduced as the avatar of gluttony. If the avatars of greed and lust would like the idea of a casino and strip club, the promise of food likely fell right up his alley. It certainly lent an understandable- and almost adorable- quality to his tone and words, and the expression on his face. Devi grinned a little, rising from the couch and following them both over.

Beel moved first, quickly yet elegantly drawing a chair back for her to sit. Her eyes shone with amusement as she dipped her head in a playful not-quite-bow before settling down and allowing him to push the chair into place beneath her. He took the seat opposite her soon enough, and then Barbatos made a motion and-

There was a burst of chittering, high pitched chatter. The cover to the cart pulled away by what, at first, seemed to be the work of unseen hands; a moment later, however, something like black fog and shadows spilled out from the bottom of the cart, little flashes of color catching her eye in the darkness and-

It took a moment for her eyes to make sense of what she was seeing. It became easier as they separated further from each other, letting her pick out the individual shadow forms moving around the cart and Barbatos’ feet. There were four- no, _five_ \- of them, each one a solid black core with shadowy fog spilling down and outwards from them, trailing after them as they floated, bounced, and moved about. Each had a distinct set of horns rising from the tops of their forms, framing tiny little top hats in colors to match… blue, gold, orange, green, pink? They moved quickly and busily, shifting dishes from the top of the cart to the dining table between her and Beel with an efficiency that was almost scary, and-

“Were you able to reach your ‘family?’” Barbatos asked, dragging her attention from the mysterious little creatures up to him. There was an amused look in his eyes, although she wasn’t sure if it was at the way she’d been staring at them, or at the subject of his question. Either way she nodded.

“I was, yes. They’re going to pack a few things for me and let me know when they’re done. I take it you’re the one I’ll need to let know what that happens?”

“Correct,” he answered with a nod of his own. “I’ll go to retrieve your things personally; with the situation as it stands, the knowledge of your loved ones’ location must be as closely guarded as possible for as long as can be.” The set of his lips then was as close to a neutral look as she’d seen from him so far, almost a frown. “With time, we will be able to put some precautions into place to protect your home in the human world, but even then, it would be better not to unnecessarily invite trouble to your family’s doorstep.”

“That would be greatly appreciated,” she agreed. “My family is not incapable of defending themselves, but they’re prepared to deal with humans, not-” she paused and gestured lightly to their surroundings, to the little shadow creatures that were just finishing setting out all the food, having covered almost all of the small table with the varying dishes. Barbatos laughed softly, clearly getting what she meant. As the creatures chittered happily and settled down around the bottom of the cart and the steward’s feet, she had a thought; pulling the D.D.D. from her pocket again, she flashed the back face of it towards Barbatos, asking, “if you don’t mind, I’d like to make sure my family knows who to expect?”

“Of course,” he permitted, nodding his head, and he gave her that calm, mysterious smile that she’d already come to expect in the ( _very_ ) short time she’d known him. Grinning to herself, she swiped the device open to the camera and took a quick picture; when it looked fine to her, she turned the device to show him, waiting for him to nod his approval before saving it.

“There will be a code you’ll have to give when you go to them; I’ll send it to you once they’re ready,” she told him as she opened a chat message to send the picture, her eyes flicking up to him. “I’m sure you would be able to handle the situation regardless, but- I think both my sanity _and_ theirs would suffer less without such stress.”

If she sent Barbatos without the code, Quinn and Vette would flay her alive the next time she went home.

Something like laughter danced in the demon’s eyes, but he nodded smoothly, not quite grinning as he told her, “Far be it for me to cause any undue stress.” And then his attention shifted to include both her and Beel, his expression settling once more. “For now, I hope you’ll both enjoy the food. There will be a formal dinner later this evening; I’ll send word once plans have been solidified regarding who shall be attending and when it shall be held.”

Devi blinked and eyed the spread of food on the table. She looked back up at Barbatos, only to find him not-quite-smirking at her confusion. She followed his gaze as it shifted to Beel and-

Ah. Well, apparently she was about to learn exactly what being the Avatar of Gluttony meant for her soulmate. The look on his face, as his gaze roamed over the spread of food between them… Hell, if she’d thought the excitement in his voice _before_ had been adorable, it had _nothing_ on the look on his face _now_.

“I suppose we’ll talk to you later then,” she said to Barbatos. The corners of his eyes crinkled and the steward nodded; he gave a quick look down towards the shadow creatures at his feet, sending them scurrying onto the bottom level of the now empty cart, and then he took hold of the cart and wheeled it out, leaving her alone with her soulmate and their… mid-day snack.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devi gets to know both Beel and Asmo a little more; in the process, she _also_ learns a little bit more about what a soulmate's touch means.

Despite Barbatos’ words, there was _not_ , in fact, a formal dinner that evening. Between getting things ready for the brothers to move to the castle from the House of Lamentations, retrieving some of Devi’s things from the human world and placing a few preliminary wards around her home there, putting out more feelers to search the Devildom for the faction opposed to Diavolo’s reign, and also increasing security around the Demon Lord’s castle itself, it seemed like everyone _other_ than she and Beel kept busy. As for the two of them?

“I’m going to _kill_ her,” Devi half growled under her breath as she dropped piece after piece of almost completely _useless_ clothing onto the bed beside the open suitcase Barbatos had brought back to her. Beel was sitting a little farther up on the bed, mostly just observing as he munched on some of the snacks the shadows creatures ( _Little Ds, she’d been told; they had a name_ ) brought to the suite on an almost hourly basis. Every so often, though, he’d get a curious look in those lovely eyes of his, and he’d set the food dodwn to pick up one of the things she threw aside.

Like now. His head tilted as he swallowed the mouthful he’d had, set his bag of some kind of chips ( _bat wing crisps? Were those **literal** bat wings?_) aside, and picked up the metallic gold and maroon piece she’d just dropped onto the top of the pile. In his large hands, it looked even _smaller_ than it already did, and he fiddled with it for several long moments, trying to make sense of the metal plated straps and long gauzy strips of cloth. 

“What is this supposed to be?” he asked. His brows furrowed when it only ended up even more tangled than it had started out; carefully suppressing a laugh, she took pity on him and reached out to take it from him. It took her only a moment to untangle and sort it out, holding it up against herself with a bit of finagling and draping; the bikini top wouldn’t have covered even a fraction of her breasts had she put it on; the long loincloth style panties would have fully exposed her legs; the rest of the golden chains, from arm cuffs to leash and collar, were pure decoration.

“It’s a slave costume from one of our old shows,” she told him, grinning at the way his eyebrows hiked their way up his forehead. She continued, her voice playful as she watched his cheeks flush a charming faint red, “It’s a fun show, although we haven’t done it in awhile. A dashing heroine is searching for her missing soulmate, but gets captured by a cruel Unseelie faerie. He forces her into chains and brings her to the court to show off his new human pet.” 

More to amuse herself than anything else, she dropped the top and bottom of the costume onto the pile again, but carefully maneuvered the curling golden upper arm band over her wrist, up her forearm, and wiggled it into place tight enough around her bicep so that it wouldn’t fall. The costume hadn’t been a _complete_ joke; the outfit itself might have been useless, but she loved gold jewelry, and Vette knew it. With it in place, she picked up the wrist cuff that went with it and slipped it onto her other arm, grinning up at Beel again. “It turns out that her soulmate had been captured by the fae as well. The show ends with the pair of them killing their masters and fighting their way out.”

“Did-” he started, and then cleared his throat, grabbing for his crisps again before trying again. “Did you perform in that show?”

“I had a short part in it, yes,” she answered with a chuckle. It was clear from the way his eyes shifted from the abandoned costume and back to her where his mind had gone- not that it bothered her in the least. “The ‘Empress’ is in the court scene, but it’s only a very short appearance; I stayed on stage long enough to watch the heroine break free and kill her master, give her my approval, and then leave.” She paused, a wicked thought striking her; she gave Beel her best teasing eyes, smirking just slightly. “That said, the heroine’s outfit _is_ in my size; if you’d like me to show you what the costume looks like on…”

His flush from before had almost faded; it returned suddenly in full. Rather than answer, he abruptly shifted his attention back to the suitcase she’d abandoned, asking,

“Is all the clothing like that, or did they send you anything you can use?”

“Most of it is,” she admitted, letting the tease go easily. There’d be time later, once they’d gotten to know one another more, spent more time together, for teasing. She might even get _some_ use out of some of the costumes Vette had sent- eventually. For now, “there’s a lot of old costumes, lingerie from some of the more generic, cheaper shows we do. Aside from that…” She huffed again, turning to pull a few more things from the suitcase and- _there_. A normal, perfectly useful shirt, buried amongst the other pieces; it went on the _very_ short stack of casual clothing she’d found. “She didn’t hang me _completely_ out to dry; there’s about a week’s worth of _my_ clothing here.”

She’d have to rewear pants a couple times, but at least she wouldn’t want for underwear for at _least_ a month. She really _was_ going to kill Vette as soon as she got home. Sighing to herself, she started to toss all the costumes and lingerie back into the suitcase for now. The usable clothes she could hang up in the room’s huge walk-in closet, but there wasn’t really any reason to keep the rest of it accessible at the moment.

“Barbatos mentioned that he could get anything I needed out in the Devildom itself,” she said, musing out loud. “What are the chances that I could go with him to pick up some new clothing for myself?”

“You could ask Asmo to take you,” Beel answered, his voice thoughtful and only partially muffled by a mouthful of bat wings. His enthusiasm where it pertained to food really was rather endearing. “He would never turn down an opportunity to go shopping. He’ll probably want to take you sooner or later anyway; he’s going to be excited about having someone new he can try to dress up.”

Well _that_ sounded like it could be entertaining. Devi grinned a little, closing the suitcase and zipping it shut as she considered. She hadn’t seen too terribly much of Asmodeus- _Asmo_ \- so far, but the little she had seen… He’d been flirty, teasing, and playful before the severity of their situation had settled everyone down. Like Lucifer and Diavolo, he’d mentioned having another soulmate besides herself- Solomon, the other human in this entire mix, who was apparently _very_ good at magic. And, as both Lucifer and Beel had both pointed out, he was the Avatar of Lust, a thought which certainly intrigued her.

“Lucifer will probably insist someone else go with you besides just Asmo,” Beel continued, swallowing and then frowning. “Although you’ll probably have to push even then. If you’re going to leave the castle at any point, sooner would be better, before anyone finds out about you, but even still, it’s dangerous.” His expression was completely serious now, the wrinkled and almost empty bag of crisps laying in his lap forgotten. She already wanted to wipe the look away, to send the flush from before back to his cheeks, or perhaps one of the smiles she’d seen earlier.

“For what it’s worth,” she offered, even knowing that it was probably little comfort given who any enemies would be, “I’m _very_ good in a fight. I don’t know much about demons yet, but that can change- that _will_ change, because I refuse to sit idle and not learn how to properly defend myself.” She shifted, moving so she could sit on the bed beside her soulmate, making a point of catching his gaze with her own. “But even if Diavolo’s enemies appeared right this moment, and somehow managed to take you out of commission, they still wouldn’t be able to take me down without a fight.”

Devi reached out with one hand, fingers spread and palm turned upwards to him in invitation. She smiled at him as he met her eyes steadily; a moment later, he gave a faint smile in return and enveloped her hand with his. It was… strange, really, the way his warm skin felt against hers, how _right_ it felt. It wasn’t a new feeling; she felt similar things before, with Quinn, with Vette. She’d know Vette since they were children, and they met Quinn in their teens. They’d built a relationship together over years, and after so long together, their touches felt _right_ too. But this… This wasn’t something years in the making. She met Beel _today_ , mere hours ago, and yet…

Yet, even that first time she’d taken his hand inside that large, dark stone hall, it had felt _right_. It had felt _right_ again when he’d taken her hand before Barbatos led them here. And it felt _right_ now too. Logic said it shouldn’t. Logic said that she shouldn’t already trust him the way she knew she did, said that she knew next to nothing about him, other than that he was a demon and a lord of _hell_ itself. And yet.

“You said you wanted to see my mark, didn’t you?” she asked, apropos of nothing, intentionally pushing her thoughts away from that direction. If she let herself brood over it, she would drive herself crazy, begin second guessing herself when she knew that she should trust her instincts. She let her smile widen as his eyes shifted downwards to her stomach, where they both knew their mark lay hidden beneath her top. She squeezed his hand lightly and then let go as he nodded.

“I’d like that,” he answered, straightening where he sat. Grinning, Devi reached down wordlessly for the hem of her shirt; she drew the thin material up and away from her waist carefully, pulling it up, up, up until the fabric was bunched up beneath her bust.

Bright white against the dark brown of her skin, to the right of her bellybutton, sat the unmated mark that she now knew belonged to Beel’s brother, Belphegor. Mirrored across from it on the left… They saw its new, changed colors for the first time together; the dark lines of the fly were a deep indigo, its coloring a barely lighter shimmering of violet to blue; the many faceted eyes were a shining, reflective orange; its spread wings were an iridescent blue-purple far lighter than its body, glinting brightly on her skin; the rounded waning crescent moon that encircled it was a metallic gold that caught the light of the room beautifully.

Like before, after he’d first changed into his demonic form, Beel’s hand began to move towards the mark without a thought. She watched as he caught himself, pausing his hand’s movement forward; she caught his hand with hers before he could withdraw it. Silence fell for a moment between them as she met his eyes, a silent question in her own. When he nodded slowly, she smiled again and led his hand forward until the pads of his fingers just _barely_ brushed the mark.

Both their breaths caught in their throat. As a soft orange glow lit up his fingers, a warm surge of heat and pleasure rolled over her at even that light touch; her eyes slid closed for a moment as it caught her off guard. It wasn’t that she didn’t know the effect a soulmate’s touch to their mark was meant to cause- it was an idea entirely romanticised and expounded upon in everything from books to movies and TV and more. Hell, it was something they’d included in shows at the club, when the stories of them involved soulmates. But she’d always thought somehow, having never seen such a thing in action, having no close ties with anyone united and mated with their soulmate, that it was over-exaggerated. Had long wondered if it was just… _over_ sold for stories and entertainment. She’d thought, maybe, it was something like how it might feel to have a lover stroke somewhere sensitive on the body. Pleasurable if pressed and done just right, but something that would need to be worked at, earned, teased and well loved. But this… 

Beel had barely touched her, had done so only at her direction, and yet even just that light brush sent her breath speeding once she found it again, sent sensual heat coiling through her veins. Even as his hand jerked back as if burned, he’d already stricken a fire within her, desire and need pulling at her senses faster than they ever had before. When her eyes focused again, her vision having gone almost white for a moment, she met his gaze once more only to find his pupils blown, a fire in them to match her own.

“I-” he began, and then stopped, his eyes flitting away from hers quickly, his cheeks flushing deeply. She took the moment to turn her own focus inward, having to fight somewhat to regain control over her breathing, to slow and even it back into something like normal. She felt overheated, suspected that her own eyes were likely dilated as well, her own cheek darkened with blush. 

How much of that had he felt? She knew he felt _something_ : she would have known even without the evidence of it in his eyes and on his cheeks. The pleasure of a soulmate’s touch to their mark flowed both ways.

Devi opened her mouth to speak- and a knock sounded at the sitting room’s door. Both their eyes jerked towards the bedroom door; a moment later, Beel was standing, saying;

“I should get that.”

And that… had been that.

The evening after that passed in something of a strange dance between them. By the time Beel had returned from the door only a moment or so later, the latest offerings from Barbatos’ Little Ds in hand, she’d pulled down her top and they’d… Really, ‘danced’ was the only word for it. Danced around the intimacy and heat that just that lightest of touches had sparked between them, danced around the tension that it had left behind between them. Beel had snacked, she’d eventually had a little something more for herself, and when the day had finally caught up with her… 

“Where are you going to sleep,” she’d asked after changing into the most covered of the pajamas Vette had sent. And then,

“I’m not,” Beel had told her with a shake of his head, and moved towards one of the armchairs in the corner of the bedroom. “I’ll keep watch through the night; Asmo will be here in the morning.”

She’d barely had to think about it for even a moment before offering him a light smile. As she’d settled down into the unfamiliar bed for the night, she’d scooted to one side and patted the other. “Whether you sleep or not, I can’t imagine spending all night in a chair would be very comfortable. Come on over; I only bite if you ask nicely.”

With a flush and something of a laugh, he’d told her, “You sound like Asmo,” and then he’d come over and settled in to lie atop the covers beside her.

_____________________________________

She woke briefly when she felt Beel shift, woke enough to register that she’d moved in her sleep so that she was cuddled up to his side, the blankets the only thing between them. It was an odd feeling; both that she’d felt safe enough in so short a time that she’d moved so close while she slept- and the fact that she didn’t wake _entirely_.

Being the daughter of a high profile gangster, having a sister who wanted nothing more than to eliminate her, had taught her long ago to fully wake at the slightest disturbance, to be ready to defend herself immediately and without hesitation; she didn’t fully wake even as Beel shushed her back to sleep with a small smile and rose from the bed, heading out of the bedroom. She didn’t fully wake at the sound of his voice in the sitting room, speaking to another. She didn’t fully wake either, when another came back into the bedroom in Beel’s place; through half lidded eyes she registered a golden orange gaze, champagne hair, a lithe figure settling down to sit on the opposite side of the bed.

 _Asmo_ , her mind supplied, and then as the strangely familiar yet _unfamiliar_ demon grinned, waving nimble fingers at her, she found herself slipping back into sleep.

She woke again much later, fully this time, to the sound of an airy humming coming from the closet. Asmo, she thought once more, remembering how she’d fallen asleep again so easily that morning- something that was a feat in and of itself. Not even Quinn and Vette, after all their years together, could so easily keep from disturbing her should they get up or move around after she’d gone to sleep- but both Beel and Asmo had managed it within a single day.

( _Of course, a traitorous thought in the back of her mind reminded her, Quinn and Vette weren’t her soulmates; Beel and Asmo **were**. Was that really the only reason for it?_)

Devi pushed the thought away as she pushed the covers back from her legs, pushing up to sit and swing her legs over the side of the bed. Standing, she padded quietly across the carpeted bedroom towards the closet, peeking in to find the demon- rifling through the suitcase of costumes and lingerie.

Somehow, she wasn’t entirely surprised. He _had_ been introduced as the avatar of _lust_.

“Good morning,” he said cheerfully before she had a chance to speak, not even turning to look at her. The chipper tone of his voice was catching, and she caught herself grinning despite herself as he asked, “I hope you slept well?”

“Surprisingly so,” she agreed. She settled in to lean against the doorframe, watching as her soulmate picked up a nurse costume and held it up to examine. “I’m not used to someone being able to move around the same room while I’m sleeping and _not_ wake me.”

“It’s a perk of being soulmates,” he answered, confirming what she’d thought. “Solomon was much the same when we were first united; his position at the time didn’t allow him the luxury of sleeping deeply, and it was a few centuries before he trusted how much deeper he slept when I was near.”

It took a moment for her mind to register part of his statement; when it did, she arched an eyebrow at him in disbelief. “‘ _Centuries_?’ I thought Solomon was human?”

“Oh he is,” Asmo said with a laugh, and turned to face her; he grinned widely and held the skimpy costume up against himself, telling her, “I might have to borrow this in the future; I’d look stunning in it, don’t you say?”

“You certainly would,” she grinned, letting her clear appreciation for that little mental image show in her gaze, but she didn’t let him bypass her question so easily. “If Solomon is human, how could it have been ‘centuries’ before he trusted something? Humans don’t exactly live that long.”

“Not normally, no,” the demon agreed, a mischievous look in his eyes, and then he set the costume back into the suitcase, flipping it shut before turning back to her. “But that’s a discussion for another day. For now, Beel said that you had need of a bit of shopping?”

Interesting. Interrogating her fellow human later it was. Giving Asmo an amused look, she chuckled and nodded. “I do. As you can see,” she gestured to the meager amount of usable clothing that she’d hung up, “my family didn’t exactly send me much that I can actually wear.”

“I don’t know about that,” he said with a smirk, the mischief in his eyes flaring brighter. “I’d say that we could get _plenty_ of use out of what’s in the suitcase.”

“Maybe later,” she teased back, mischief in her own eyes. “But somehow I don’t think wearing stripper costumes out into hell would be the best choice possible. Might give others the wrong idea.”

Something dark shone in his eyes at that, a look that sent something of a thrill through her. It wasn’t a look that he’d earned yet, not when they’d only met the day before, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to scold him for it, not when it felt almost _right_ too. She gave him a smirk of her own instead, and then pushed off from the doorframe, moving past him to grab a set of fresh clothes from where they hung beside him; she opened the suitcase long enough to slip out a set of underwear, then closed it again and headed out of the closet.

“The wrong idea indeed,” he echoed, and those sunset eyes of his remained locked on her as he followed her back into the bedroom.

Suppressing a grin, and perhaps feeling a little playful, Devi didn’t bother to shoo him out or away before she dropped the clothes on the bed and reached down for the hem of her night shirt. Rather, meeting his eyes dead on, she pulled it up and over her head in one smooth motion, dropping it onto the bed lazily. Her body was bare beneath it, and she could _feel_ the way his eyes slid over her skin, the weight of his gaze heated and heavy; she could feel, too, how his gaze lingered briefly over the four marks revealed on her torso.

She’d taken the time to examine them when she changed the night before. Belphegor’s was still unchanged, and the ones that belonged to both Beel and Simeon were just as she had already seen as well; the last one, sitting on her left collarbone across from Simeon’s, had been colored in beautiful tones of iridescent blue, marks of greens and golds dotting it. Asmo’ eyes swept from one to another, across all four, before shifting lower on her body; his gaze settled just below the waistline of her sleep shorts, on her right hip bone.

“Hoping to see more?” she asked, her voice teasing, and reached for the bra she’d grabbed; it was a frilly white thing, not the kind she’d ever normally wear herself, but… _Vette_. She didn’t have to struggle with it for even a moment. As _soon_ as she’d slid the straps up to her shoulders, her soulmate was behind her; his fingers were warm when they brushed across the bare skin of her back, deftly clasping the back of the bra closed and settling the elastic band into place against her body. A moment later, she felt his entire body press against her back, lithe arms slipping around her waist as a chin set on her shoulder and strands of light, reddish blond hair tickled her cheek.

“Can you blame me?” he asked in return, his tone light and melodic. “Even having Solomon, there has been a part of me missing for so _very_ long. Now here you are before me, so utterly lovely and enticing, baring yourself to me so beautifully.” His slim fingers danced along her skin as he spoke. He brushed against each visible mark, but there was no surge of pleasure as there had been the night before; they weren’t _his_ marks, even though he was her soulmate. His fingers _were_ trailing towards _another_ mark though, teasing the hem of her shorts. He slipped a single finger beneath the thin fabric and-

“Ah, ah, ah,” she said, catching his hand with her own. She smirked as she pulled it upwards and free of her shorts again; well, now she knew which mark _was_ his. She turned her head to place a playful peck of a kiss on his cheek, and then pulled herself free of his arms and grabbed the clean shirt on the bed. She pulled the black crop top on and turned to give him a playful look, saying, “Beel said that we might need someone else with us if we’re going to go shopping?”

The demon _pouted_ , the expression indescribably lovely on his pretty lips. He didn’t press though, letting the topic change easily, and nodded. “We already spoke to Lucifer about it; Satan will be joining us shortly.” He moved to the bed, turning to perch on the edge of it beside her discarded night shirt, kicking his legs playfully. He continued to watch her with heated eyes as she shucked her shorts and panties so she could finish getting dressed, but his voice was more serious as he continued, telling her firmly, “You need to remain with one of us at all times. No one knows who you are yet, or that our soulmate has appeared, but the Devildom is still a dangerous place for a human.”

Devi had put on a fresh pair of panties ( _also white frilly things, thanks Vette_ ) and had a pair of stretchy jeans half pulled up by the end of the solemn warning. She paused, arching an eyebrow at him, and then finished pulling them on and buttoned and zipped them shut; she turned to the vanity dresser against another wall as she spoke, sifting through the small amount of jewelry that she’d received with the clothes.

“Lucifer said that Diavolo’s mark was known; do I need to worry about anyone recognizing your brothers’ marks as well?” While she hadn’t initially thought about it, the marks on her wrists, as well as those on her stomach, were all bared by her crop top. She heard him shift, standing from the bed, and then a few footsteps as Asmo closed the distance between them. He placed himself at her back again, although he didn’t touch this time, only watched her over her shoulder in the mirror. She watched his eyes drift to her wrists as she began to put in her many earrings, and then down to her bared stomach.

“Mammon’s is the only one that might be recognized,” he told her, and his eyes settled on the crow shaped mark on the inside of her left wrist. “Our other brothers either keep their marks covered, or simply aren’t in the public eye often enough that their marks are well known. Mammon is a model, however, with a-” he paused, his nose crinkling lightly in disgust, “strangely dedicated following. Really, I don’t know _what_ they see in him.”

Her other eyebrow went up at his words, even as she reached for the long slave bracelet that was meant to go with the costume she’d shown Beel; it was large enough that it should cover the mark in question well enough. She fastened it into place over the mark as she tried to remember the little she’d seen of Mammon the day before- tan skin, bright eyes, a shock of white hair. Avatar of Greed. She could certainly see him as a model- she could have _killed_ to have a dancer as gorgeous as he was at the Court. Of course, _all_ of the men she’d met here so far were gorgeous enough that she would have hired them in a nano-second, even without having seen them dance yet.

“He _is_ rather easy on the eyes,” she said, an amused look and her eyes as she met his gaze in the mirror. His nose crinkled further, his lips pulling into an almost grimace; it was enough to make her want to tease. She continued, “I don’t know much about the modeling business, but if I put him on stage at my strip club, he’d bring in a killing in terms of profit. _I_ would certainly enjoy the show, if nothing else.”

She didn’t know what she expected his response to be, which was half the reason she’d teased: curiosity. She _hadn’t_ expected for a soft light to glow from his eyes though, for him to smirk smugly, bodily pressing against her once more, his hands slipping down to rest on her hips. He dipped his head forward, being careful to hold her gaze in the mirror, and his breath was warm against her ear as he told her, voice husky, “If you want a show like that, trust me: I could do _much_ better than my scumbag of a brother. Mammon may be pretty to look at, but I promise that I’m not only prettier, but _far_ more talented.”

“That’s quite the promise,” she told him with a smirk, and hell if it wasn’t sending a _hell_ of a reaction coursing through her. Even without touching his mark, the feel of him pressing against her, holding her, felt so perfectly _right_ ; she both wanted to give in, to let him prove his promise, and also wanted to jerk away and push him away. She’d had flings over the years- her relationship with Quinn and Vette was an open one, and they trusted each other- and she’d felt instant chemistry with others over the years… But it had never been like _this_. So rather than do either, she teased more. “Proving it might take some time, I’m afraid; after all, I can hardly judge who’s better until after I’ve _thoroughly_ examined you _both_.”

A low sound rumbled through her, deep, dark, and somewhere between a sensual purr and a threatening _growl_ ; it was coming from _Asmo_ , emanating from his chest and vibrating through her entire body, and it sent a deep shudder down her spine. The glow of his eyes in the mirror intensified as they narrowed on her, his fingers on her hips tightening just slightly as he held her. His lips pulled back into a dark smirk and then they parted, a flash of fang catching her eyes, and-

There was a firm knock on the front door of the suite.

The mood of the room shifted instantly. Devi felt herself catch a breath she hadn’t fully realized she’d lost, and the demon behind her cursed in a growling language she didn’t recognize. As he released her and stepped back from her, she felt the remnants of heated lust curl within her belly, lingering despite the distance now between them. His eyes were still slightly glowing, the light slowly fading, as he all but stalked out of the bedroom; she heard him pull the sitting room door open with _force_ , enough so that she heard it slam against the wall as she moved to follow, looking out the bedroom door to see. Then he was growling in that same dark, guttural language again, this time through the open door at-

Satan. Who had a look of utter amusement on his face, mirth dancing in blue-green eyes as he looked first at Asmo, then beyond his brother to Devi herself, and then back to his brother. He cocked one hand on his hip, a cocky grin on his lips, as he interrupted the other demon’s rant.

“You’re not being very polite,” he said in English, clearly entertained. “Speaking Infernal in front of our soulmate when she doesn’t understand it? Quite rude of you, really.”

Asmo snapped out one more growled word, and then stepped back to allow Satan to enter. As the blond passed him, he took a clear moment to calm himself, closing the door once more and turning to face her. Satan, for his part, came over to her, extending one hand out. Curious, Devi laid her hand in his; when he raised it to lightly kiss the back of her knuckles- clearly meaning to provoke his brother, who fumed behind him- she grinned.

“What a gentlemanly greeting,” she told him, her gaze lit up with amusement. The smile he gave her in return was mischievous, and he let her hand fall gently back down before stepping away.

“Don’t believe that gentlemanly facade too much,” Asmo said, and he had seemingly recovered himself once more. “As the avatar of wrath, Satan can be _quite_ the ferocious beast at times- although he’s quite a sight to see when he is.”

“If you’re trying to deter me,” Devi teased back, letting her gaze shift between her soulmates, “then you’re not doing a very good job. I enjoy a bit of beast in a man.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” he replied, eyes dark. Beside him, Satan huffed, and she looked over in time to catch the roll of his eyes as he spoke up,

“If you’re done, Asmo?” he asked, blond eyebrows arched high. His brother shot him a smirk in return, shrugging easily.

“For the moment,” Asmo answered, and then his gaze turned a little more serious. “I trust our itinerary has been approved?”

“It has,” Satan confirmed with a nod, and shifted so he could include Devi in his gaze. “We should leave as early as we can; the places we’ll be going will remain clear of other customers until we’re done, and the sooner we’re finished, the less gossip there will be about it.”

She got the message loud and clear. She nodded in return, and told him, “I can be ready to go in a minute, I just need to grab a few last things from the bedroom.”

“I’ll help-” Asmo began, and then Satan’s hand latched onto his arm, abruptly stopping him in his tracks.

“Oh I’m sure you will. Just like you were _helping_ before I arrived?”

His brother had no good reply to that, and huffed loudly, pouting once more. Devi grinned to herself and headed back into the bedroom. She’d grab one of the purses Vette had sent, as well as a few of the knives that had been hidden in the lining of the suitcase, and then they could head out. Her first foray into hell.

Well, she’d always been heading here eventually anyway, might as well enjoy it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record... Attempting to wrangle Asmo and Devi _away_ from falling right into bed was. A Task, ffffffff. These two, I swear.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, many thanks to my wife, [Gyhl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gyhl), who is my beta and who gets to put up with me shoving stuff at them and praying that it's okay. XD Many thanks to m'darlin' [PhantomFox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomFox/pseuds/PhantomFox) for helping beta as well!
> 
> Devi also features in my Royalty AU, '[To Reign in Hell](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25595563),' and in my series '[Of Love and Demons Loved](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760449),' set in the normal Obey Me universe. If you're curious what she looks like, I have a [character visual reference post](https://panickedpansexualprincess.tumblr.com/post/615583468262457344/a-visualization-post-for-my-mc-devi-from-obey-me) over on tumblr!
> 
> If you're on tumblr, you can find me at [PanickedPansexualPrincess](http://PanickedPansexualPrincess.tumblr.com).


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